Sam Jennings: Horowhenua District Councillor defends council decision to end residential berm-mowing

Controversy in Levin over a recent move to end residential berm-mowing.

Horowhenua District Council is making property owners responsible for mowing berms to save about $250,000 a year.

Many city councils – like Auckland and Wellington – require owners to mow their own berms, while others – like Christchurch – "strongly encourage" it.

Horowhenua District Councillor Sam Jennings told Mike Hosking during consultation most residents supported the change, but public opinion has since shifted.

“It’s all blown up on social media just recently, I guess because of the spring growth.”

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Another scrap for Regional New Zealand. They well, the call
has been made in horror of f anyway that you've
got to mow your own booms. Now it's going to
save the council two hundred and forty thousand dollars a year,
but it's leaving parts of the town apparently in a
bit of a tip to the horror finaw a district
Council of Sam Jennings with us.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Sam.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
Good morning, morning, Mike.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
How are you going very well?

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Indeed, how controversial was the decision itself?

Speaker 2 (00:19):
Well, the decision itself was pretty pretty quiet. It was
made as part of the long term plan and we
had about four hundred people make submissions. About three hundred
and fifty or eighty eight percent we're in favor of
the Council's moved to make some cuts and indeed try
and make some more cuts. But it's all blown up
on social media just recently, I guess because of the spring.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Growth social media. Eh, so you're telling me of submissions,
eighty eight percent wanted you to cut the mowing of
the booms.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
Absolutely, and among other things, we had some really tough
decisions around potentially closing and reducing hours of facilities like
libraries and pools, selling carbon credits, increasing fees that kind
of thing. So yeah, there was a range of range
of cuts and increases proposed.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Do you still supply rubbish bins?

Speaker 2 (01:07):
No? We so that that is outsourced to a to
the private market.

Speaker 1 (01:11):
So in a part, do you have a rubbish bin
that's cleared at all or not?

Speaker 2 (01:15):
Yes, yes we do.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
We still have because they don't collect rubbish in Auckland
anymore and they don't supply rubbish bins and the whole
thing is a complete cluster. So at least you're better
off than us. It's two hundred and forty thousand dollars
as a thing for a horror FANUA council. That is
that a worthwhile saving? I mean is that what percentage
of a budget is that?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
So that was about half a percent of rates, So yeah,
it is certainly a decent amount of money. But in
combination we were steering down the barrel of a twenty
four percent rate increase, driven mostly by insurance interest cost appreciation.
But we got that down to sixteen point six percent.

(01:55):
And you know, we have done some things like we're
closing cent facilities on a Sunday, and there's been a
seven percent reduction in our workforce, so about a million
dollars saving and employee costs. So there's been some pretty
tough decisions to be honest.

Speaker 1 (02:11):
Good what's your debt.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
So we're one of the one of probably one of
the worst in terms of debt debt capacity, and yeah,
we look, we're we're really pretty constrained. We've we've invested
a lot in water supply and and and wastewater. One
of the few councils that discharged to land and not
into waterways. So we've got some big debt numbers. But

(02:38):
we're also in a significant growth phase, so seeing a
lot of development.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Exactly, yeah, exactly, all right, Sam Good Insight, apreciate very much.
Sam Jennings. Horror for who are district councilor I've never
understood why if you have a house and you got
a boom outside of you're mowing your own lawns while
you're not mowing the boom. It seems the weirdest thing
unless youve got a house that has no lawn at
all and you were responsible for the boom outside. And
I just can't imagine there are that any houses around
with literally no lawn but a boom outside, and suddenly

(03:03):
you gotta try and find somebody to do your lawna
buy yourself a weed wacker or a launa. It's a
strange thing that people get upset about.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
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